Archive - June 2015

On Wednesday, the EPO announced that the Select Committee of the Administrative Council had adopted the “True Top 4” proposal tabled by the European Patent Office on renewal fees applicable to the unitary patent. The “True Top 4” proposal, as we explained here, fixes the unitary patent renewal fees at levels equal to the sum […]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the shape of the famous Lego man is still a protected trade mark after a rival firm challenged the registration. In September 2010, the ECJ rejected Lego’s appeal to protect a trade mark registration for its eight-studded bricks following a legal challenge brought by rival company, […]

In a recent decision the Court of Appeal upheld the finding of the Patents Court that the claimant, Astra Zeneca (AZ), should pay £27 million in damages to the defendants Krka and Consilient, as settlement of a cross-undertaking that AZ agreed to, as part of an interim injunction. This is said to be the largest […]

Where an undertaking has no paying customers in the UK for goods sold under a mark and therefore no goodwill, can a claim for passing off succeed on the basis of the mark’s reputation alone? This was the focus of a recent Supreme Court decision, a matter, as the presiding judge Lord Neuberger reflected, “of […]

In ongoing UK High Court litigation between Warner-Lambert and Actavis, Mr Justice Arnold has taken the unprecedented step of granting an order mandating the National Health Service (NHS) to issue guidance to doctors and pharmacists that the drug pregablin must only be prescribed for the treatment of neuropathic pain (a patented indication) under the brand […]